Female life, even ordinary female life, involves epic experience.
"If the end of the Hymn is the establishment of the Eleusinian Mysteries, the focus is on the affective bond of mother and daughter and on the forming of further affective ties, particularly with Demophoôn. It is the meeting of divine and human worlds that here results in the revelation of the Mysteries — they are not simply a by-product of the divine celebration of the return of Persephone. It is because gods care about humans that Demeter withholds fertility, and it is because gods care about humans that Zeus reacts to that. But the areas of life which manifest that concern are areas of fundamentally female experience. — The Hymn to Demeter draws heavily on epic, but it does so to insist that female life, even ordinary female life, involves epic experience."

Gestures of Mourning
"Both mourn, Demeter for her lost Persephone, Metaneira in fear for Demophoôn's life (L-246 desias). Demeter's mourning ritual, elaborated several times (L-40ff, 90ff, 200ff, and L-304), includes such gestures of grief as tearing her headdress, refusing food, and other comforts, wearing dark mourning clothes, wailing, etc. For Metaneira, mourning is suggested by the use of words commonly associated with grief or anguish over the dead, and also by her gesture of beating her thighs (L-245), which although not a formal mourning gesture, is suggestive of similar self-abusive mourning acts."

Ambrosia, Breath & Fire
"Demeter performs three actions in her attempt to make Demophoon immortal:
(i) She anoints him with ambrosia. Although usually presented as the solid food of the gods, ambrosia ('deathless stuff') is at times used as an unguent, and has been described as the divine counterpart to olive oil, just as nektar answers to wine.
(ii) She breathes upon him while clasping him to her bosom. In the Homeric epics the breath of a god gives strength to the hero whom it enters.
(iii) She puts him in the fire at night. This is intended to burn away the child's mortal parts."

Demophoon & Achilles
"It is interesting that fire and ambrosia are used both in the case of Achilles and Demophoön. As Apollodoros tells the story, Thetis hid Achilles in the fire by night and anointed him with ambrosia by day. Although in the story of Demophoön it is not clear what procedure is followed, the treatment with the fire took place at night, the implication being that the anointing occurred during the day."

from "The Homeric Hymns, Translation, Introduction, and Notes," p. 75
by Apostolos N. Athanassakis (1976) Dress with spring crocus designs from ancient Crete, and illustrating the decorative waistband of the type "well-girt" Metaneira would have worn.
Small faience sculpture, from a Knossos temple repository. Illustrated in "The Palace of Minos : a Comparative Account of...the Discoveries at Knossos," by Arthur Evans (1921)
___ ___ ___

Metaneira's Redemptive Disruption"Archetypal reality in human life, patterned around our deepest emotional experiences, is quite distinct from personal reality, which is organized sequentially and narratively as a lifetime. [...] When Demeter attempts to transform a human child, Demophoon, into a god, she is attempting to make time stand still. But standstill in human life is death. Rather than mourn the loss of Persephone, Demeter grabbed for a quick substitution, and if she were to have her way, nothing would have changed on Olympos. That is, if Demeter had simply replaced Persephone she would not have influenced Zeus. Hermes would not have activated the release of Persephone, and the Eleusinian rites would not have been founded. Only through the angry recognition by the human mother, Metaneira, is development restored."

from "Midlife Passage / Demeter's Folly," p. 209, by Polly Young-Eisendrath, in "The Long Journey Home: Re-visioning the Myth of Demeter and Persephone for Our Time, edited by Christine Downing (1994)

Blooming & Curiosity — an Unexpected "Folly"
"Demophon grows wonderfully, and his divine appearance is a wonder to his parents, who ignore what causes the transformation. He blooms (prothalês, L-241), a state that evokes descriptions of other baby heroes [in Greek myth], as well as of Persephone herself at the beginning of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Metaneira is overcome by curiosity, and she eventually discovers the nightly fire ritual performed by Demeter. While Demeter promised she would protect the child against the folly (kakophradia) of a nurse [L-227-230], the folly (aphradia) of the mother's spying and rushing in takes Demeter by surprise [L-251-254]."

239 ἠύτε δαλὸν / hute dalon
like a fire-brand - according to Hymns, Allen & Sikes (1904): "This may mean that 'she hid him in fire as a brand is kept alight' (in the ashes), for which see H. Herm., 234. More probably however, 'she wrapt him in flames like a lighted torch.'"

244 ἐπιτηρήσασα / epitêrêsasa (ἐπιτηρ-έω)
keep watch - look out or watch for - watch to detect - keep an eye on -
according to Hymns, Allen and Sikes (1904):
"[Metaneira] watched to see how the nurse made the child thrive, and thus
broke the taboo. The magic could only be worked in secrecy, although
the writer implies rather than expresses this."

"But you, O Dike, bind your hair with lovely crowns,
tying stems of anise together in your soft hands.
For the blessed Graces prefer to look on one who wears flowers
and turn away from those without a crown."

Demeter as "Mater Dolorosa"

"Yet though [the Hymn to Demeter] has reached the stage of conscious literary interpretation, much of its early mystical or cosmical character still lingers about the story, as it is here told. Later mythologists simply define the personal history; but in this hymn we may, again and again, trace curious links of connection with the original purpose of the myth. Its subject is the weary woman, indeed, our Lady of Sorrows, the mater dolorosa of the ancient world, but with a certain latent reference, all through, to the mystical person of the earth. Her robe of dark blue is the raiment of her mourning, but also the blue robe of the earth in shadow, as we see it in Titian's landscapes; her great age is the age of the immemorial earth ; she becomes a nurse, therefore, holding Demophoon in her bosom; the folds of her garment are fragrant, not merely with the incense of Eleusis, but with the natural perfume of flowers and fruit. The sweet breath with which she nourishes the child Demophoon, is the warm west wind {L-237-238], feeding all germs of vegetable life; her bosom, where he lies, is the bosom of the earth, with its strengthening heat, reserved and shy, offended if human eyes scrutinise too closely its secret chemistry."

from "The Myth of Demeter and Persephone," in "Greek Studies: a Series of Essays, pg. 114, by Walter Pater (1875 / 1920)

Demophoon's Baptism

"Demophoon's projected immortalization is to be brought about not only by fire, but also by
(a) anointing and ambrosia,
(b) breathing on him with divine breath,
(c) holding him in the bosom of the goddess. These are all ways of imparting divine strength [L-237 ff] and with the fire, they suggest comparison with later cults. The use of divine breath and fire may perhaps be compared with the Christian baptism in the holy spirit and fire. The gold metal leaf plates found in graves in various parts of the Graeco-Roman world [...] claim protection of the goddess [...or actual adoption] by her."

from "The Homeric Hymn to Demeter, ed. by N. J. Richardson, p.235-6 (1974)